Meat can be treated and its durability can be enhanced by means of various processes. Such processes usually comprise the inactivation of microorganisms, i.e. the treatment after which meat becomes an unsuitable medium for the growth of microorganisms. Known processes of meat treatment include physical processes, e.g. air drying, salting, freezing or elimination of the access of oxygen by means of evacuation, use of inert atmosphere or oiling; chemical processes, e.g. additivation with preservatives, such as benzoic acid, curing, etc; and biological processes, e.g. fermentation during the production of thermally non-treated meat products.
The processes as mentioned above for treating fresh meat often suffer from various disadvantages. Some of them are not sufficiently reproducible (air drying), other deteriorate the structure of meat (freezing) or change its organoleptic properties, especially the taste (salting). The addition of preservative does not have these disadvantages, however as its consequence extraneous chemical compounds are introduced into the food chain. Such compounds are often badly degradable in the body or their elimination from the body is troublesome which represents an additional environmental hazard to which men are exposed. Other processes as mentioned above are not generally applicable (fermentation) or sufficiently effective (elimination of the access of oxygen). Moreover, many of these processes are expensive. All these factors have a consequence that there still is a demand for superior processes for meat treatment which efficiently enhance its durability and at the same time are neither deleterious from the biological point of view nor expensive.